A letter to the Presidents of the Westminster Medical Society, on cholera / [John Webster].

  • Webster, John.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Presidents of the Westminster Medical Society, on cholera / [John Webster]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Could be more convincing, than these facts to shew, the disease now in the Borough is not new. And apparently the same conclusion is amply borne out, by the symptoms observed in the frequently mentioned cases of the soldier Webb, and of the taylor taken to St. James's Infirmary, in the month of November. How the advocates for a new and recently imported disease, can get over the marked Similarity of the symptoms observed in these individuals, it is difficult to understand. By some physicians, it has been attempted to argue, that neither identity of symptoms during life, nor post mortem examinations, prove any thing conclusively j but that there is acting a something which cannot well be described, sufficient however to explain the whole difficulty. With such reasoning, it is impossible to grapple; and those who employ this mode of explanation can only be left to the quiet cogitation of their own favorite hypothesis, as with their opponents, it would be hopeless to expect any approximation. On the subject of contagion, it is not now necessary to dilate at any length, seeing, that many points in dispute have been surrendered by the contagionists ; and at present tve hear no more of internal quarantine, nor of the strict rules at one time laid down, for those in attendance upon the sick; besides nothing is now said of the portentuous words, once recommended to be placed over the doors of houses, where Cholera patients might be contained; these views are wholly abandoned. Still, however, many talented members of the profession, besides others, consider, that the Cholera is only communicated from individual to indi¬ vidual, and therefore seclusion of the sick, and the conti¬ nuance of quarantine are still absolutely required; nay. Should be strictly enforced; because without such regula¬ tions, the complaint must inevitably spread and devastate the country. In the course of the enquiries, I have thought it neces¬ sary to make, for the purpose of gaining information on this, as on other points; I have not, in any case, it must candidly be confessed, yet been able to find sufficient or irrefragable proofs of the contagious nature of the disease, in the sense this expression is usually understood; and in such an opinion, I am confirmed by all the facts stated in the conversations held with the practitioners in the Borough,